THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230537
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 46 lines
Indian River's Keith Reynolds made only one mistake Wednesday night in a game when it was going to take two to beat him.
Reynolds allowed one hit - Tony Moore's three-run homer in the sixth - and the fifth-ranked Braves escaped with a 4-3 victory over No. 8 Deep Creek in a Southeastern District tournament semifinal at Oscar Smith.
The victory was Indian River's 10th in the past 11 games - the loss was a forfeit for using an ineligible player - and propelled the Braves into the Eastern Region tournament for the third time in the past four years.
Indian River (16-4) will meet top-seeded Great Bridge (14-4-1) today at 4:30 at Oscar Smith for the district tournament championship. The Wildcats, who had already secured a region berth, beat Churchland 10-2 in the other semifinal.
Reynolds (7-0) worked fast, threw hard and was just wild enough to keep the the Hornets from digging in sat the plate.
He hit Deep Creek's Wes Barnett in the head with a fastball on the second pitch of the game and walked five - including the two runners aboard on Moore's homer. But he also struck out 13.
``I felt good,'' he said. ``The pitch to Moore was right in his powerhouse. I was just trying to throw a strike, get him to hit it and get an out.''
Reynolds said it didn't occur to him he had a no-hitter going until he got back in the dugout.
``That's my second one-hitter and I've had a couple of no-hitters,'' he said.
Reynolds is assured of at least one more start Monday against Peninsula District champion Denbigh and he discovered in the third inning against Deep Creek there is a first time for everything.
Reynolds turned on a belt-high fastball with Doug Basnight on first and yanked it down the leftfield line for his first varsity home run.
``It looked like a beach ball,'' he said of the pitch. ``I thought I was dreaming.''
Basnight and James Hickman added RBI singles in the fourth and fifth to stake Reynolds to a 4-0 lead.
In the first ganme, Great Bridge's John Curtice checked Churchland on six hits and struck out 11. The Wildcats took advantage of 12 walks by Churchland starter Chris Kelley and six errors by the Trucker defense.
Zach Younce and Bill Baber each had two-run singles for the Wildcats. by CNB